<p>Need Coffee asked:</p>
<h2>Did any of you who were deferred visit the U of M campus and attend a formal session or attend a session with a U of M rep at your high school? </h2>
<p>We came from WA State to Albany NY and travelled west through Ann Arbor to where we completed our trip in Madison WI sophomore year when my son was solely focused on Ross Business School. He subsequently became much more interested in Engineering after taking much more time to look holistically at manufacturing, learning of the MI Honors EGL Program, meeting with an Honors EGL Alumni working for Boeing and the like. So, we completely re-routed his East Coast junior trip to return to Ann Arbor from Philadelphia and fly east again to Boston to finish. Cost me $800 for that detour. Anyway, Michigan Engineering knew this and made that one day trip very well worth taking the time and spending the money. From those two experiences, I’m sure my son’s interest in Michigan should have shown through in what he wrote in essays. </p>
<p>He got in Friday, but still needs aid [merit, financial, whatever] so he won’t be hitting any acceptance button til late March. There may be many more accepted from out of state like him and the aid given by Michigan may impact how Regular Decision responses and even waitlist offers are generated. </p>
<p>Its hard to simply look at numbers. It’d be helpful if those posting their results included all of the information as requested on page one of this link [including which Michigan school they applied to]. Without all of that info, its really difficult to compare apples to apples and assess the situation in order to make any adjustments in application strategies over the next few weeks. Looking back on the US News website for the factors Michigan views as most critical to their admission process can also be very helpful in this process. </p>
<p>Visiting the campus for Michigan is Recommended. In the Common App world, that can even become Paramount. </p>
<p>Michigan has just become one of very few very selective public universities [UVA and William & Mary being the others] that is now on the common application. Considering that an applicant can simply write a few more essays and pay another $60.00without being contractually bound to the school, but still get an early response, has probably increased Michigan’s early applications this year by over 20%. One can’t do that for UC Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, UNC, Georgia Tech, and UC San Diego and still make a run at a top research university without literally breaking the bank. So the MI Admissions numbers and rules of the past have suddenly changed.</p>
<p>Beyond the Recommendation of visiting, look at what else Michigan sees as premium items in consideration of one’s acceptance: </p>
<p>Rigor of Secondary School Record…Very Important. </p>
<p>Academic GPA…Important
Standardized test scores…Important
Application essay…Important
Recommendations…Important
Character/personal qualities…Important
First-generation college student…Important </p>
<p>Class rank…Considered
Extracurricular activities…Considered
Talent/ability…Considered
Alumni/ae relations…Considered
Geographical residence…Considered
State residency…Considered
Volunteer work…Considered
Work experience…Considered
Applicant’s interest level…Considered</p>
<p>One has to go back and look at their application against this list and really against the same factors for all of their other schools to appreciate where they may be admitted, deferred or even eventually rejected to some. That’s no fun, but it can really make a difference from school to school. </p>
<p>Final Comment. I’d venture that if you sat down with any of the Michigan Admissions folks to talk about the process the year, they wouldn’t have described it as “fun”. It had to be very frustrating for them. To start with, the Common App folks didn’t get the first applications released to Michigan until September 23rd [where in the past Michigan would start accepting students on a rolling basis as soon after August 1st as they could]. Then think about the huge increase of volume in applications. Certainly, both of those factors [and, in this economy, very likely not having the ability to hire any additions to the admission staff] created a “perfect storm” for potential hiccups and unhappy campers.</p>